Unsavoury character: New academic research has suggested William Shakespeare exploited the poor and dodged tax

It sounds like the sort of character who would have been deeply unpopular in one of his plays.

William Shakespeare was a 'ruthless businessman' and tax dodger, researchers have claimed.

Although he wrote plays that championed the rights of the poor and the needy, archived documents show the playwright was actually a wealthy landowner repeatedly dragged before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and threatened with jail for evading taxes.

He 'stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated prices to neighbours and local tradesmen' at a time when Europe was suffering famines, the academics said, and channelled the profits into land purchases.

They added that Shakespeare did all he could to 'avoid taxes, maximise profits at others' expense and exploit the vulnerable – while writing plays about their plight'.

And his approach of 'combining both illegal and legal activities' meant he could retire after a working life of only 24 years.

Researchers atAberystwyth University carried out an academic study looking into Shakespeare's 'other life' as one of Warwickshire's biggest landowners and have uncovered the less than savoury side to Britain's greatest playwright.

The allegation he exploited famine has also led to suggestions that his Coriolanus, for years regarded as a plea for the starving poor, was in fact his way of trying to expunge a guilty conscience.

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Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature at Aberystwyth University, said in the Sunday Times: 'There was another side to Shakespeare besides the brilliant playwright — as a ruthless businessman who did all he could to avoid taxes, maximise profits at others' expense and exploit the vulnerable — while also writing plays about their plight to entertain them.

Britain's greatest playwright: Actors Amanda Hale and Pete Postlethwaite in Shakiespeare's King Lear, which depicted an ageing monarch trying to divide his lands, and the food they produce, between his daughters

'Shakespeare is remembered as a
playwright, but there was no copyright then and no sense that his plays
could generate future income.

'That drove him to dodge taxes, illegally hoard [food] and act as a money-lender.

'He
had two surviving daughters and would have seen himself as providing
for them, but he was acting illegally and undermining the government's
attempts to feed people.'

Coriolanus
depicts a famine created and exploited by rich merchants and
politicians to maximise the price of food and includes the lines: 'They
ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain.'

It has now emerged that as Shakespeare wrote the play at the height of the 1607 food riots, he was himself hoarding grain.

Wealthy: The playwright was one of Warwickshire's biggest landowners

As
one of the biggest landowners in Warwickshire, he was ideally placed to
push prices up and then sell at the top of the market.

Ms
Archer worked with Richard Marggraf Turley, a professor in the
department, and Howard Thomas, a professor of plant science, to study
Shakespeare's life as a businessman and owner of arable farmland and
pasture at a time when Europe was suffering famines.

They
found documents in the court and tax archives showing he was repeatedly
dragged before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and
was threatened with jail for evading tax payments.

In
a paper, the academics wrote: 'Over a 15-year period Shakespeare
purchased and stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated
prices to neighbours and local tradesmen.

'In
February 1598 he was prosecuted for holding 80 bushels of malt or corn
during a time of shortage. He pursued those who could not pay him in
full for these staples and used the profits to further his own
money-lending activities ...

'Profits
were channelled into land purchases. He also acquired tithes on local
produce, including "corn, grain and hay", allowing him to cream off the
profits from others' manual work.

'By combining both illegal and legal activities, Shakespeare was able to retire in 1613 as the largest property owner in his home town, Stratford-upon-Avon. His profits — minus a few fines for illegal hoarding and tax evasion — meant he had a working life of just 24 years.'

Shakespeare's experience as a rich landowner at a time of famine may be reflected in plays such as King Lear, which depicts an ageing monarch trying to divide his lands, and the food they produce, between his daughters.

Professor Jonathan Bate, the Shakespeare scholar and provost of Worcester College, Oxford, said Archer and her colleagues had performed a valuable service in setting Shakespeare's work in the context of the famines and food shortages of the period.